Monthly Archive for Massachusetts
Massachusetts Stories Posted in July 2008
Court Rejects Challenge to Dog-Racing Initiative
Category: Massachusetts · State: Massachusetts · Source: Boston Herald
The state’s highest court has rejected a challenge by dog track owners who wanted to eliminate a November ballot question that asks voters whether to ban dog racing in Massachusetts. The track owners argued the proposed ban could not be put to a statewide ballot vote because it is aimed exclusively at the two places where dog racing currently exists: Wonderland Greyhound Park in Revere and the Raynham-Taunton Dog Track in Raynham. But the state Supreme Judicial Court ruled Tuesday that racing amounts to a matter of statewide concern. The court said the Legislature and the people have the power - through the initiative process - to abolish animal racing that involves betting.
A Cutting Mood
Category: Taxes · State: Massachusetts · Source: Worchester Telegram
As the Legislature scurried to put the finishing touches on its $28 billion spending plan for fiscal 2009 last week, a move to cut off state government’s principal source of revenue, the income tax, was getting under way. The possibility of the initiative swelling into a full-blown taxpayer revolt is one lawmakers should not take lightly. An initiative petition with more than 15,000 certified signatures, modeled on a similar measure in 2002, would end the state income tax. The signatures, certified by local city and town officials, were filed with the secretary of state on Wednesday by Carla Howell, erstwhile Libertarian Party candidate for governor. The petitioners’ assertion that a “yes” vote on the ballot question would result in an average annual tax windfall of $3,600 per taxpayer and create “hundreds of thousands of new jobs” in the next two years may be pie in the sky, but some taxpayers may find it a tempting dish. In 2002, an abolish-the-income-tax ballot initiative came within 5 percentage points of passing.
Ballot Initiative to Abolish Income Tax Will Appear on November Ballot
Category: Taxes · State: Massachusetts · Source: Politicker.com
Next November, Massachusetts voters will have the opportunity to cast their ballot to abolish the state income tax. Secretary of State William Galvin Wednesday certified 12,000 signatures on a petition to put the initiative on the ballot. Though the requirement to appear on the ballot is 11,099 signatures, Carla Howell, the chairwoman of the Committee for Small Government and head of the movement, said her group far surpassed that criteria. "Today we turned in over 15,913 certified signatures," Howell told PolitickerMA.com. "We don't know what the final count will be [since Galvin has yet to release the total count certified signatures], but we expect it to be higher than that number."
Other Monthly Archives for Massachusetts
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